NAPLES, Fla — Sean Skove describes his brand of comedy as dark, intellectual humor. But his life story is all about hope.
“I’m not just a comedian or a musician that’s up here trying to make people laugh,” Sean says. "I have a much bigger message than that.”
Sean’s story is part of our SWFL Reinvented: Moving Forward series. Every Thursday, Fox 4 Morning News Anchor, Chris Shaw, shares the story of a local person who has changed their life and taken a chance to start a new business.
When the pandemic started, Sean lost everything. His job, his home.
“Life fell apart,” he says. “I had to move back with my family, with ma. I was doing Uber, DoorDash, I was working at a Walgreen’s liquor store on the side. It was just awful. It was soul crushing, as a person. It was just, it felt like I had lost everything I worked for.”
Sean will be the first to tell you, a lot of people went through the same thing. But on top of everything else, he was also mourning the loss of a good friend who died the summer before.
“We were each other’s support system,” Sean says. "He was my best friend. We did everything together. Our lives were, we were family.”
Sean says he and his friend Dan wrote jokes together and Dan would perform them on stage. It was a big part of their bond. But after losing him, Sean says he couldn’t write for almost a year.
Last fall, with his life falling apart, he decided to turn back to comedy. But he didn’t just write this time around. He decided to do something he never thought he was capable of. He got on stage.
“So I’m reading my notes and I’m sweating and I’m shaking and I’m terrified,” Sean says. "And I’m ready to leave, I’m ready to quit. It’s too much, not this time. And my friends are texting me, ‘you can do this, man, stay strong.’ And in my head I’m thinking, ‘you gotta do this, you gotta do it for Dan.’ And I have footage of it, and it’s awful. I’m reading from my phone, it’s brutal. Brutally awful. But I did it.”
And he kept doing it. He performed everywhere from Naples, to Fort Myers, to Atlanta.
“When I do a joke, like here, at Off The Hook, I remember the first time I was here I had my first big laugh and there’s a 150 people laughing and it’s a big laugh, you’re just like ‘wow’. It’s better than any feeling I’ve ever felt. It really is.”
Sean is just getting started with his comedy and he doesn’t know where it’s going to take him. But he credits Dan for the way his life has turned around, and for his outlook now.
“If you’re out there and you want to be a painter, or you want to open your own business, or you want to walk dogs, or you want to invent something, do it. Live your life. Enjoy it like I am.”
